Difference Between HTC One X and HTC One S

The mobile industry is indeed so mobile that it gets redefined almost every month. Last month we brought you some attractive and high end smartphones from Consumer Electronic Show 2012 back from Nevada. Today we are back from Mobile World Congress from Mexico with the best smartphones in the world. It has always been the tradition for the mobile phone vendors to announce their great phones at the conventions of the same caliber to increase competition and get more attention from the media. Most of the time, it has been a successful tactic to follow to gain a competitive edge with the rivals. The smartphone vendor we are going to talk about today hasn’t shown much enthusiasm towards CES 2012, but it seems they are out wide in the open at the MWC 2012 with amazing smartphones at hand. Let’s talk about HTC and their game changers at MWC.

HTC One X and HTC One S are two smart phones that came into the arena with MWC. I don’t know why they call their smartphone line ‘One’ but I can recollect a vague memory from Matrix Trilogy that resembles this specific word. The One in Matrix or Neo was able to do such awesome things, and so can our HTC One handsets. The HTC One X commences a line of Quad core smartphones while One S makes its ancestors jealous. Let’s spin them around individually before comparing them at the same arena.

HTC One X

HTC One X is indeed the ace of the lot. It is filled with power that is waiting to burst out just like a beast. It follows the unique and ergonomically designed pattern of HTC with curved edges and three touch buttons at the bottom. It comes in either Black cover or White cover, although I rather prefer the purity of the White cover. It has 4.7 inches Super IPS LCD 2 Capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 312ppi. It is rather thinner although not the thinnest in the market, scoring a thickness of 9.3mm and a weight of 130g, which is equally ideal for a short duration or a long duration.

These may sound like pretty trivial features for an Android smartphone, but this beast comes with a 1.5GHz Quad Core processor on top of Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset and 1GB RAM with ULP GeForce GPU. We are positive that the benchmarks will skyrocket with HTC One X. The beast is tamed by Android OS v4.0 IceCreamSandwich, which we believe is suitable for handling multicore processors effectively, thus enabling HTC One X to attain its full thrust. HTC One X is somewhat short with the memory with 32GB internal storage without an option to expand yet, still it’s a lot of memory for a phone. The UI is certainly not the Vanilla Android; rather it’s a variant of HTC Sense UI. In the perspective of usability, we see the normal unique advantages of IceCreamSandwich being featured here, as well.

HTC has given some thought to this handset because it also has 8MP camera with autofocus and LED flash that can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 frames per second including stereo sound and video stabilization. The interesting feature is that HTC claims you can capture a snapshot even while you’re capturing 1080p HD video, which is simply awesome. It also comes with 1.3MP front camera bundled together with Bluetooth v3.0 for the purpose of video conferencing. It features HSDPA connectivity up to 21Mbps which is great. The Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n enables continuous connectivity and Wi-Fi sharing through the ability to host a Wi-Fi hotspot. It also has built-in DLNA, which enables you to stream rich media content to your SmartTV. We assume that the HTC’s claim of having a processing power to support a streaming video on the SmartTV while you’re on a call is not an exaggeration.

Apart from these facts, we know that HTC One X comes with 1800mAh battery, but we don’t have the statistics on the usage time. To be on a safe margin, we can assume it to be somewhere around 6-7 hours.

HTC One S

Another one from the HTC One family that can scare some competitive smartphones away is HTC One S. It is indeed a model that boasts a balance between performance, size and price. We can call it the kid sister of One X. One S is somewhat smaller than One X and lighter, as well, which is due to the smaller screen size. HTC One S has 4.3 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels at a pixel density of 256ppi. It follows the unique design of HTC and only comes in Black. The handset is equipped with 1.5GHz Krait Dual Core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chipset with 1GB of RAM and Adreno 225 GPU. The controlling body is Android OS v4.0 ICS, which we think does justice to the hardware. The UI has the HTC Sense touch although we are still to find out which version it is.

We can clearly see that HTC has blessed One S with the same optics as One X. It has 8MP camera with autofocus and LED flash with the ability to simultaneously capture 1080p HD video @ 30 frames per second and record a snapshot on the fly. The stereo sound recorder and video stabilization engine is the same and 1.3Mp front camera facilitates video calling functionality. Given the quality of the camera, we have some issues with the storage provided, which is 16GB internal without the option to expand. You might get into serious trouble if you’re a movie junkie and a cameraman. We could collect that it defines connectivity through HSDPA and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n is available for continuous connectivity. HTC One S can also host a Wi-Fi hotspot and wirelessly stream rich media content with the DLNA functionality. We are hoping for a battery usage time of 6-7 hours minimum with HTC One S, as well.

A Brief Comparison of HTC One X vs HTC One S

• HTC One X is powered by 1.5GHz Quad Core processor on top of Nvidia Tegra 3 Chipset and ULP GeForce GPU, while HTC One S is powered by 1.5GHz Dual Core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 225 GPU.

• HTC One X has 32GB internal storage without the option to expand while HTC One S only has 16GB of internal storage without the option to expand.

Conclusion

It’s fairly simple conclusion; the HTC One X is obviously better than HTC One S. The processor itself would justify that judgment. Anyhow, there’s a subtle part to it. Apart from the processor and the screen, One X and One S is almost the same. This poses us the question whether we would need this certain processor and screen and what is the tradeoff. Let me answer those questions one by one. The processor is indeed a delight to look at as a spec. You can proudly say you own a quad core smartphone, which is a state of the art, and believe me, it’s going to bring you fame. Other than that, most of the applications in the market are still trying to digest the dual core concept, so Quad core might be few steps ahead of them which mean you would not have ideal applications to run on One X. On the other hand, the processor would serve a great purpose if you are a heavy gamer since game industry has heavily gone MIA in multiple cores. This would be something for you to think before making the investment decision.

Both screen panels are state of the art although One X has the best panel which is IPS LCD 2 featuring a larger screen and a better resolution at a good pixel density. This would mean crisp reproductions of colors and texts and awesome gaming and video experience. The gigantic screen would be ideal to watch a movie when you’re on your way to somewhere. However, there are people who don’t like bigger screen thinking they are frustrating. If you’re like that, HTC One S would be your choice. The display panel and the quality of reproduction are nearly identical to that of One X to the naked eye. Of course if you’re a gamer, you already know my recommendation.

The tradeoff is actually the price and the size and of course the fame which comes with the smartphone. Thus, considering these facts, the purchasing decision is indeed in your hands for only you know what would sever the best for your purpose.